Lucid dreaming

[Tres Juicy]

Hi all,

 

I haven't managed lucid dreams since I was a kid (when they just seemed to happen naturally)

 

and I've just read this article

 

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21228442.400-hijack-your-own-dreams-to-improve-your-skills.html

 

So I wondered if you guys have managed it and if you had any tips?

 

Also, hypothetically, what benefits do think you could reap from this ability? What skills would you practice?

[Ophiolite]

I was just readng that new New Scientist issue over lunch. My own experience with lucid dreams is that it did not take long before I lost the awareness that I was dreaming. Consequently there would be little time to practice anything. I imagine with focused practice this obstacle might be overcome. I also found control of the environment difficult. I might try to conjure up a nice high speed jet to fly and it would appear as a badly serviced twin engined piston job. Clearly some people have had much more success. At least I can now explain to my boss why I am sleeping at my desk - "just rehearsing teaching to a hostile audience, boss."

[anch0red]

I never used to lucid dream, but I would have dreams which were lucid/vivid, esp in the morning having half woken up. I watched waking life and looked up lucid dreaming and found it fascinating. I was looking up techniques such as looking in mirrors, at digital clocks, and flicking lightswitches when in that state and when in the real world to make it more likely that you would do it in a dream, as these are things which your mind has trouble making work in dreams. Also just looking at your hands in general.

 

Since I started reading about it and thinking about it a lot, I had a few moments of realising I had a lucid dream and then "zooming" out and waking up. I also have had 2 dreams which became lucid half way through. The first was by far the most interesting, though not my first lucid dream. It was all crazy and basically I got out of a taxi and was questioning why we had to park where we parked and they said because there were no bus stops anywhere else which made me realise I had been on a double-decker bus before so I must be dreaming. Now, there are 2 things most people want to do when they go into a lucid dream: fly, and fuck, so I found the first guy I could wandering around and we did do the flying thing. it was a more interesting if less realistic flight than in my other flying dreams. We could loop-de-loop and al that, but when it came to sex he told me he was in love with someone else, so not wanting to abuse my own mind I decided to let that one slide.

 

My other dream induced dream was after the main part of a dream had just finished which involved dogs and parties, and I was walking across the street and there was a group of guys behind me who were rude to me so I had a go at them, then they asked me if I was a dreamer or not. I pondered and said that depended on whether I was dreaming or not. I became lucid around then. And then they decided that to find out they threatened to rape me and walked towards me, and after 2 attempts I managed to wake myself up. Slapping didn't work. I had to force my eyes. I was convinced for about an hour that they were other lucid dreamers and couldn't go back to sleep. Wasn't too keen on that one!

 

However, using the wake-back-to-bed technique I have been able to self induce a few times. I can quite often, picture my room, or what I can see with my eyes open, almost exactly with them shut. If done in the right conditions you can very easily put yourself in the same state as a waking dream. You can feel what your body is touching, and "see" where you are, but trying to move will just be your brain telling yourself to move. For some people this turns into sleep paralysis, which is the start of many a "ghost-sighting", but for others, they will THINK that they moved, and hopefully be able to dream that they got out of bed. If you are thinking about lucid dreaming in this state then there is a good chance that it will result as a lucid dream. You can use your eye movements to begin with, as lucid dreams are REM so that shouldn't mess it up.

 

However, with self induced you tend to find that whilst the world keeps form better (in dream-induced your brain is busy trying to control both you, others and your surrounding all at once. very fast loading video game!) because its already mostly decided upon, and doesn't take much imagination, being able to change the environment is much harder. Or at least it was for me. First time, I got out of my bed, went to the door, went to open it, and put my hand straight through the handle. By this logic I decided to walk through the wooden door, but I bashed into it, so I ran my hand down my arm, till I felt the door, then across the door to the handle. It didn't last much longer than that and most don't last long at all.

 

I did have one at some point where I was able to morph my body and grow huge and scary, but only once. It's really hard. One word of advice would be that in a dream-induced dream, one sign that might be useful to associate with being a dream that isn't in the top paragraph, is that it is really hard to exert yourself in a dream, which is why flying is often floating and flapping around, and why often if you CAN run, you are more fast-forwarding, unaware of your body. When you are vivid enough in your dream to notice your limbs, running often becomes impossible, and even walking, and you start feeling as if you are walking though thick mud in slow motion. a couple of my early dream-induced dreams that woke me up began with that. Hope that helps. There are a lot of resources online, though you might want to avoid the more "spiritual" ones.

[Tres Juicy]

I never used to lucid dream, but I would have dreams which were lucid/vivid, esp in the morning having half woken up. I watched waking life and looked up lucid dreaming and found it fascinating. I was looking up techniques such as looking in mirrors, at digital clocks, and flicking lightswitches when in that state and when in the real world to make it more likely that you would do it in a dream, as these are things which your mind has trouble making work in dreams. Also just looking at your hands in general.

 

Since I started reading about it and thinking about it a lot, I had a few moments of realising I had a lucid dream and then "zooming" out and waking up. I also have had 2 dreams which became lucid half way through. The first was by far the most interesting, though not my first lucid dream. It was all crazy and basically I got out of a taxi and was questioning why we had to park where we parked and they said because there were no bus stops anywhere else which made me realise I had been on a double-decker bus before so I must be dreaming. Now, there are 2 things most people want to do when they go into a lucid dream: fly, and fuck, so I found the first guy I could wandering around and we did do the flying thing. it was a more interesting if less realistic flight than in my other flying dreams. We could loop-de-loop and al that, but when it came to sex he told me he was in love with someone else, so not wanting to abuse my own mind I decided to let that one slide.

 

My other dream induced dream was after the main part of a dream had just finished which involved dogs and parties, and I was walking across the street and there was a group of guys behind me who were rude to me so I had a go at them, then they asked me if I was a dreamer or not. I pondered and said that depended on whether I was dreaming or not. I became lucid around then. And then they decided that to find out they threatened to rape me and walked towards me, and after 2 attempts I managed to wake myself up. Slapping didn't work. I had to force my eyes. I was convinced for about an hour that they were other lucid dreamers and couldn't go back to sleep. Wasn't too keen on that one!

 

However, using the wake-back-to-bed technique I have been able to self induce a few times. I can quite often, picture my room, or what I can see with my eyes open, almost exactly with them shut. If done in the right conditions you can very easily put yourself in the same state as a waking dream. You can feel what your body is touching, and "see" where you are, but trying to move will just be your brain telling yourself to move. For some people this turns into sleep paralysis, which is the start of many a "ghost-sighting", but for others, they will THINK that they moved, and hopefully be able to dream that they got out of bed. If you are thinking about lucid dreaming in this state then there is a good chance that it will result as a lucid dream. You can use your eye movements to begin with, as lucid dreams are REM so that shouldn't mess it up.

 

However, with self induced you tend to find that whilst the world keeps form better (in dream-induced your brain is busy trying to control both you, others and your surrounding all at once. very fast loading video game!) because its already mostly decided upon, and doesn't take much imagination, being able to change the environment is much harder. Or at least it was for me. First time, I got out of my bed, went to the door, went to open it, and put my hand straight through the handle. By this logic I decided to walk through the wooden door, but I bashed into it, so I ran my hand down my arm, till I felt the door, then across the door to the handle. It didn't last much longer than that and most don't last long at all.

 

I did have one at some point where I was able to morph my body and grow huge and scary, but only once. It's really hard. One word of advice would be that in a dream-induced dream, one sign that might be useful to associate with being a dream that isn't in the top paragraph, is that it is really hard to exert yourself in a dream, which is why flying is often floating and flapping around, and why often if you CAN run, you are more fast-forwarding, unaware of your body. When you are vivid enough in your dream to notice your limbs, running often becomes impossible, and even walking, and you start feeling as if you are walking though thick mud in slow motion. a couple of my early dream-induced dreams that woke me up began with that. Hope that helps. There are a lot of resources online, though you might want to avoid the more "spiritual" ones.

 

I've been trying out some stuff recently, no fully lucid experiences yet but I do seem to be remembering a lot more dreams and in more detail.

 

I used to get them quite regularly and gain full control (which is amazing) I'd like to get that ability back if I can

[Daedalus]

The best way I have found to gain control of my dream is to identify events in my dream that are impossible or way beyond the expectations of ordinary life. It's not an easy thing to do, but I have had a few occurrences where I was able to do this.

 

A few months ago I had a really strange dream where I was walking outside near this place I used to live when all of a sudden an Apache helicopter came swooping by shooting at me and launching missles at my house. I started running and trying to find a place to take cover when I realized that I must be dreaming. As soon as I made that realization, the helicopter disappeared but the damage to the yard and the house was still there. There were windows that were shattered and the yard had huge holes where the missles had hit.

 

The first thing I tried was to see if I could clear the holes in the yard. As soon as I thought about that, the holes disappeared and the yard was back to normal. Then, I walked up to the house and thought about fixing the windows. To my amazement, the glass floated up from the ground and did this Matrix like effect where all the pieces came together and the cracks in the glass fused themselves back together into a single plane of glass. It looked like the scene from the first Matrix movie where Neo seen the mirror repair itself. I remember actually thinking about how that was like the Matrix so I decided to give flying a shot. I looked up towards the sky and jumped. It seemed to work because I looked down and noticed that I was above the house. It was at that moment I began to float down. Even though I thought about going higher, I couldn't control my descent and ended back on the ground. I tried this several more times going higher each attempt but could not fly.

 

I'm not sure why I couldn't fly, but my dream had ended and I woke up with this mixed feeling of awe and at the same time disappointment. I thought about the events in my dream and I realized that the helicopter must have come from my memories of playing Battlefield 2 and the reforming of the glass and attempting to fly were, of course, from my memories of the Matrix. I haven't had many dreams like that, but when I do it's always because I realize that the events of the dream are to strange to be real. Perhaps next time I have a lucid dream, I'll be able to fly.

[Tres Juicy]

So do you guys have any tips?

[DrmDoc]

So do you guys have any tips?

Lucid dreaming isn't as much about creating the experience as it is about conditioning or training yourself to recognize the signs and experiences that informs your perception of being within a dream; e.i., lucid dreaming is about recognizing the signs that you are dreaming. Think about the last time you experienced a lucid dream and the experiences that made you aware that you were dreaming. Then review in your mind, just before slumber, those experiences with the intent that should they occur know that you are dreaming. Say to yourself, that if you have an experience like levitation, for example, I will know that I am dreaming. As a caution, too much lucid dreaming does not promote mental health.

[StringJunky]

. As a caution, too much lucid dreaming does not promote mental health.

 

Why's that? Can you point me to any material that discusses it? I've always had a hunch that too much is not good so I kind of went off it a long time ago but still happens sometimes when I'm in the stage before waking up.

[DrmDoc]

Why's that? Can you point me to any material that discusses it? I've always had a hunch that too much is not good so I kind of went off it a long time ago but still happens sometimes when I'm in the stage before waking up.

I've notice how a prominent lucid dreaming researchers (e.g., LaBerge) has developed behavorial ticks to assure himself that he is experiencing reality rather than a lucid dream. A persistent doubt that one is experiencing true reality is evidence of schizophrenia. True reality involves real life-changing consequences; therefore, there should never be any doubt that one is experience reality. Excessive lucid dreaming, as LaBerge's behavior suggests, may have mental consequences beyond the mastery of the dreamer. It is best to let the experience occur as a natural progression of your sleep experience. I hope this helps. Edited January 19, 2012 by DrmDoc

[Nelson]

didnt know you were into this pal.. i love it i have so much binaural stuff and hypnosis

 

Hi all,

 

I haven't managed lucid dreams since I was a kid (when they just seemed to happen naturally)

 

and I've just read this article

 

http://www.newscient...our-skills.html

 

So I wondered if you guys have managed it and if you had any tips?

 

Also, hypothetically, what benefits do think you could reap from this ability? What skills would you practice?